Keely Hodgkinson announces ‘Keely Klassic’ attack on 800m world record

Keely Hodgkinson has announced an attack on the world indoor 800m record next year in a special new event that is named in her honour to help bring athletics out of the shadow of football.

The Olympic champion and newly crowned Sports Personality of the Year – who was described this week by Lord Coe as already one of the all-time greats of her sport – is targeting records and further global gold in 2025 but also wants to maximise her off-track influence.

The ‘Keely Klassic’, which will be staged in Birmingham on February 15 and be her first competitive race since the Paris Games, will culminate with her attempt on the 1min 55.82sec world record that was actually set on the day she was born almost 23 years ago. The BBC is in talks to screen live coverage of an expected hour-long show that will include around nine races, music and celebrity appearances.

“I’m beyond excited to announce the Keely Klassic – this event is all about bringing energy, passion, and top-tier athletics to the fans,” said Hodgkinson.

“I think track over the years has gotten a bit lost with all the football in this country and it’s not a top, top sport, but we have such great people in it. We have seen with the Olympics that when it is put out there, they are really fun events.

“Some of my friends who had never been to a track meet came to the Olympics and they said it was an experience they will never forget. We can definitely give that to people more often with the calibre of athletes we have all around the world. I am just excited to do that and I love to inspire people, whether it’s to watch it, try it, get them off the couch for their mental health. It’s a great opportunity for that.”

Coe, the president of World Athletics who held the men’s indoor and outdoor 800m records, was asked what Hodgkinson now needed to do to become an all-time great.

“She’s there,” he said of the Olympic and European champion. “I think the question is how long will she be able to maintain that, from being so relatively young in doing that? I would be hard pushed to place any female athlete significantly above her in the history of our sport in the last 50 years.”

Hodgkinson, who was back training in Manchester the morning after being crowned Sports Personality of the Year, revealed that she had almost been disturbed in collecting the award by an alarm that she sets at 9pm every day to update her anti-doping whereabouts. She said it had been surreal to then look down at the list of former winners. “You realise it is history right in front of you – Bobby Moore, Mary Rand, Linford Christie, Steve Cram, Andy Murray, Lewis Hamilton… it goes on forever. You never know, someone in 30 years might be looking back and saying: ‘Oh, it’s Keely Hodgkinson.’”

Hodgkinson was joined among the SPOTY winners by her mentors Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, who were jointly named coach of the year in a week when their funding cut was publicly revealed.

Even coaches such as Painter and Meadows, who joined the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola and Sir Clive Woodward in being named coach of the year, can now receive only £15,000-a-year from UK Athletics, whose own budget has been reduced by Olympic funding body UK Sport.

It means that they will look for outside funding to continue their outstanding recent work, which also resulted in Olympic bronze medals for Georgia Bell and Lewis Davey.

“We’d got the email about six weeks ago so we’ve had time to process it and come to terms with it – we’ll still crack on and do what we’re doing,” said Painter, who has not yet accepted the reduced offer.

He added: “We’ll hopefully sit down with them [UKA] and say: ‘It can’t be right.’ You’re getting an eight per cent cut from UK Sport but we’re getting over 50 per cent cuts. I think there’s something going on there politically at the top end and unfortunately it’s athletes and coaches who are going to suffer the backlash. Hopefully they can sort it out and we can move on. You’re not doing it for the money. You’re doing it to help people grow as athletes and humans. That’s the ultimate reward.”

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